Changwon Special City, 'Significant Expansion of Eco-Friendly Electric Vehicle Charging Facilities'

124 New Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Installed

Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam is actively promoting the installation of electric vehicle charging facilities in areas with high charging demand such as public offices, parks, and public parking lots.

Changwon Special City Hall, Gyeongnam.
Photo by Lee Seryeong

According to the city, since the enforcement of the Act on the Promotion of Development and Distribution of Environmentally Friendly Automobiles (Eco-friendly Vehicle Act) on January 28 last year, the mandatory installation of charging facilities has been expanded from facilities with 100 or more parking spaces to those with 50 or more parking spaces.

The ratio of charging facilities to total parking spaces has also increased from at least 0.5% in newly constructed facilities to at least 5%. Existing facilities must also have charging facilities at a ratio of at least 2%.

Accordingly, Changwon City selected three companies?Chajibi, Easy Charger, and Korea Electric Vehicle Charging Service?through a public contest for selecting private charging operators to install and operate charging facilities at 124 public facilities managed by the city. The selected companies plan to install and manage chargers (221 fast chargers and 97 slow chargers) free of charge on sites provided by Changwon City.

Installation will be carried out according to the evaluation score rankings: ▲1st place Seongsan-gu (82 fast chargers, 32 slow chargers) ▲2nd place Uichang-gu (78 fast chargers, 15 slow chargers) ▲3rd place Masanhappo-gu, Masanhoewon-gu, Jinhae-gu (61 fast chargers, 50 slow chargers). The city plans to continuously monitor the operational performance of each company to ensure thorough post-maintenance.

Furthermore, ultra-fast charging facilities of 100kW or higher will be established at major locations with high charging demand to greatly enhance convenience for electric vehicle users.

Kim Tae-sun, head of the Climate and Air Division, stated, “As demand for eco-friendly electric vehicles rapidly increases, we will continue to expand charging infrastructure by region to ensure that citizens do not experience inconvenience when charging.”